My answer to that question is an emphatic YES! The fact that she was willing to put her family, friends, and complete strangers thru many days of anguish and heartache while searching for her was very selfish on her part. She planned this out ahead of time by buying the bus ticket. She cut her hair trying to hide her identity from authorities. She could have made one phone call to her family just to let them know she was ok. It would have ended the whole ordeal. She instead dialed 9/11 with a fake abduction story which she later recanted. She reported a crime that did not exist(obstructing police). Vast law enforcement resources were used in the search.

We had a similar situation here with the UW-Madison student who faked her abduction....she was charged and received 3 years probation and ordered to repay the police $9,000. If there is no punishment to deter future cases like this, the REAL victims will be the ones who aren't "crying wolf".

What will be interesting with this case is if her fiance ever walks down the aisle with this woman!

So you can't go anywhere without informing someone? That may be the responsible thing to do but it isn't reality. This gal was scared to follow through on her wedding. She took the easy way out. She may be culpable for lying to police officials but I'm not so sure she's responsible to repay costs. Maybe the people who called the police should bear that expense. It's a wicked circle. I keep thinking there must have been indicators she didn't want to follow through with the wedding. Now her fiancee gives her a ring and says he still wants to walk the isle with her. Who's the goofy one here?

i feel for the groom in this scenario. in a post-scott peterson era, it was immediately suspected, even in the news, though they did not "directly" state it, that he probably got cold feet and offed her. so in all this commotion, confusion, and frustration he had dealing with his brides disappearence, he had to take time to get a lawyer, be questioned, and take one a lie detector test, and was being pressured into more.

to think of all the time and money that could have been saved if he'd had a good leash. JUST KIDDING! :p

Can you believe it? Someone is actually selling a piece of TOAST on e-bay "Jennifer Wilbanks Runaway Bride Found On My Toast!!!!" and get this, the current bid is $16,100.00! Man oh Man, why didn't I think of that? LOL

Originally posted by ski:So you can't go anywhere without informing someone? That may be the responsible thing to do but it isn't reality.

The reality is she went away a few days before her wedding, told no one. This was felt to be totally out of character for her. Then, when she decides to turn herself in she lies and says she was abducted. Yes, she should pay. Perhaps had she been honerst and just said I bolted, I was afraid, OK. That can happen. But to lie, not OK. And as a mother of 2 Hispanic sons I resent her lie that a Hispanic male abducted her. How come it's never white men accused of false abductions? It's always minority males accused in these cases.

Nell

More women die of lung cancer than breast cancer. If you smoke, quit. If you don't, don't start.